One of several anti-slavery songs by the abolitionist Benjamin R. Hanby, 1860.
The sheet music:
Accompaniment by James Pitt-Payne:
Corrected accompaniment mp3:
Lyrics
- ‘Tis midnight gliding on her deep dark wings
And the wind o’er my gentle Tillie sighs
And my poor heart trembles like the banjo strings
That I’m tumming near the hillock where she lies
Chorus
Weep, zephyrs, weep in the midnight deep
Where the cypress and the vine sadly wave
I have taken down my banjo for I could not sleep
And I’m singing by my little Tillie’s grave
- When they tore my Jennie from her sweet sweet child
And her heart was withering with mine
In my arms I bore thee to this island wild
Lest the fate of thy mother should be thine - How sweet have the seasons glided by since then
How happy each moment of the year
Save a sigh that the lov’d one might come back again
We have known not a sorrow nor a tear - But the swamp fever lighted on the dark brown cheek
And I knew death was knocking at the door
How my full soul trembled with its bursting grief
When I saw that my Tillie was no more - Now the wild cat is wailing and the night hawk screams
And the copperhead is hissing in the shade
They shall come not hither to disturb thy dreams
For I’ll watch where they sleeping dust is laid
Chorus
Sleep Tillie, sleep! in the midnight deep
Where the cypress and the vine sadly wave
Let my fingers keep tumming and my fond heart weep
Till I die by my little Tillie’s grave
And he died by little Tillie’s grave
Sung here by Vancha March: